Core exercises for 6-year-old boy

Submitted by veggiemom on February 26, 2015 - 7:03am
Body: 

I am new to these forums, but I have been on Christine's email list for a few years. I love the new Goddess Belly DVD exercises as they are the first that I can do all the way through without modification. (My joints are overly flexible and my back and knees get thrown off easily by exercises.) I finally embraced Whole Woman posture fully a few months ago and gave up Kegels that I needed to keep things stable yet made me sore even in small numbers. The posture has been working really well for me, but it changes my whole perspective on healthy exercise, so I'm looking for insights on my son's situation. He is 6 1/2 and has low muscle tone and poor motor coordination (common with high-functioning autism). He gets both private and school occupational therapy and physical therapy. I know his private OT and PT try to get him to do sit-ups (which he is too weak to do at this point). The PT asked us to do a variation at home every day where he sits with his knees bent, feet on the floor and leans back slightly then pulls himself back up to sitting (so a very tiny sit-up). Obviously his core is extremely weak and needs strengthening. Are sit-ups okay for boys (and eventually for an adult man)? I know their bodies are different from women's. When I do some yoga with him I still avoid saying to pull his belly in, I just say to pull up tall. With all this therapy, I'm guessing others probably tell him to tighten his belly and so I'm wondering if this is anything to worry about for a boy. Any safer core exercises recommended? Thanks for any thoughts!

Forum:

lifegoeson04

February 26, 2015 - 1:30pm

hello, only wanted to say welcome..it's a really good question I don't know about boys/men, will be interested to here more experienced friends jump in. I think postural they should work to still have a curve but not sure about abdominal workouts. I noticed you said Kegals to keep you "stable" , from my experience they really didn't keep me stable just helped me to get prolapse fully and the tampon feeling was always there after. Glad to hear you've stopped and embraced whole woman, hope you now manage to feel improvement.

veggiemom

February 26, 2015 - 4:27pm

Thank you for the welcome! Yes, somehow doing Kegels everyday kept the prolapse feeling away for me, but if I skipped days or lifted something heavy it came back. It was a fine balance because I could only do a few Kegels without developing soreness (I had varicosities during pregnancy and I think it might be related), and I knew there had to be a better way. I had tried Whole Woman posture a few years ago without success, but I think I was doing it wrong. This time the posture really clicked with me and has been a success, and I'm trying to figure out how to fit it in with other aspects of my life like doing yoga and raising my children to have healthy posture and exercise. Glad to be here!

veggiemom

February 26, 2015 - 7:02pm

Thanks for bringing that thread to my attention. I actually read that as a non-registered user a few months ago, but rereading it was helpful. I guess that doing some ab exercises won't in itself be bad, but I should try to make sure he keeps his lumbar curve in exercise and daily posture as much as possible. Since he can barely do a sit-up, he is very far from Joseph Pilates's condition!

Aussie Soul Sister

February 26, 2015 - 11:11pm

Dear veggiemom and son,
I have studied and worked with all ages as a support worker & reading Christine's research reminds me of what could be done to help these people, with their physical strength and coordination and balance, using her approach, particularly starting young.

Balance, particularly and including the inner ear, coordination, overall strength, the feet more grounded and sure - footed, energy saving, are just some of the many benefits of WWP posture and exercise.

Indeed it is child posture which we lose over time due to modern living, postural and exercise styles.

In this posture children naturally belly breath, which develops the spinal curve, and they develop their foot arch, which develops the acetabular roof of the hips - their posture is much more effortless compared to the sucking in and tucking of the stomach and bottom, and the resulting tension creating chest & or mouth breathing.

When I stand in the posture my abdominal wall is a strong wall without any effort on my part. Ie (tension of pulling in etc).

Christine's DVDs are based on her modified yoga and ballet with some dance in her First Aid for Prolapse DVD.

I am a great believer in the Hips DVD being beneficial for anyone the more I do this work.
The upper body exercises are done in a chair, with a very effective torso twist exercise. There are foot arch exercises. The floor exercises and the box ones strengthen the legs and hip, and foot arches.
These exercises even up both sides of the body, allow better balance and coordination as a result.
start with as few or many as you wish and build up from there.

Further suggestions I have would be to get him to crawl for coordination. It reinforces coordination in the brain.
Let him if possible go bare footed as much as possible at home. Do the same yourself if you don't already.
Walking in posture. Running in the posture.
Horse riding I have been told helps people with low torso/muscle tone, gain increased torso strength, as just one benefit of many.
Scottish country dancing is supportive of the posture and feet, with lovely strengthening foot work, coordination and balance and fun.

The following blog by Christine is one of my favourites, put the title in the search box on the blog section.
"Balance - The Sixth Sense" - click on the link words Science Column during the article for more interesting research.

https://wholewoman.com/blog/?p=1262

I hope this helps, however I am by no means an expert - just my study and observations over the years, and relating it to Christine's unique approach.

A call to Christine may help more specifically to your requirements.

All the best to you and your son,

Aussie Soul Sister

veggiemom

February 27, 2015 - 10:31am

Thank you for all your insights and for getting me to do the Save Your Hips workout for the first time. My mother also suffers from hypermobile joints and has had both her hips replaced in her 60s (and a hysterectomy)--I wish I would have known all this to share with her before all that. In any case, I had bought the hips set but had never done the exercises. Now I have and am pleased that, like the Goddess Belly DVD, I can do these excercises without modification because they are all so gentle on my joints. And should help me hold the posture better and strengthen my overly "open" hips (I did skip the exercise with the weight to stretch open the hip). Also, I don't know what it is in me that is overly flexible for this but I can never feel the standing hamstring stretch anywhere for some reason. However, I can really feel forward bending stretches in the backs of my legs.

Thank you for the ideas for my son. He naturally loves to go barefoot--takes his shoes and socks off immediately just about anywhere. Unfortunately, he already has completely fallen arches like I do when I don't consciously pull up in posture. I will try to work with him on some of the arch exercises and standing tall to see if that pulls them up more. He seems to like doing yoga with me so we will work on more balance--and both try to avoid extreme stretches since he also has hypermobile joints.

chickaboom

February 28, 2015 - 3:17pm

Interesting question- would love to hear Christine's take on it. My initial thought is: is the misdirected intra abdominal pressure produced in these positions detrimental to males as it is to females? and if not, is there any real benefit resulting from situps? We know that a strong muscle is a long, functional muscle, not necessarily a tight short muscle. Have u considered having him hang from monkey bars, climb jungle gyms, etc? Not sure how that would work with his hypermobile joints..

veggiemom

March 1, 2015 - 10:22am

Good points, chickaboom. They do all kinds of fun climbing and activities to strenghthen him all over in his OT and PT sessions. Holding his own weight hanging is still a challenge, but he's made such great progress since he started OT and PT. Thankfully lots of it is fun and dynamic activities and not what adult PT usually is. I will try to memorize more of Christine's exercises and try to find fun ways to share them with him. He has been eager to get his hands on the baton since he saw a photo I took of my 2-year-old daughter "exercising" with it. :-)